Combustion stopper seal
A gasket having a gasket plate formed with an aperture. An annular flange provides a stopper seal around the aperture. The flange has spaced areas of varying thickness. The gasket is formed by punching an opening in the gasket plate inwardly of an annular array of bolt-holes. An annular portion of the plate surrounding the opening is folded back to form the flange and place it in surface-to-surface contact with the plate. The areas of the flange adjacent to the bolt-holes are compressed a greater amount than areas of the flange more remote from the bolt-holes.
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This invention relates to combustion stopper seals for cylinder head gaskets of vehicle engines and a method of making the same.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONMetal gaskets are well known for providing a seal between a cylinder head and a cylinder block of a motor vehicle engine. Typically these gaskets are formed with apertures over the combustion openings of the cylinders, and some gaskets have special sealing elements around the apertures to increase their sealing effectiveness. Such sealing elements may be formed by folding back an annular portion of the gasket about a circular fold line and pressing it against the main body of the gasket to form a stopper seal.
One of the problems associated with stopper seals is an uneven distribution of compression loading around the aperture. It has been discovered that the greatest load on the stopper seal is at or near the bolt-locations, that is, in the areas adjacent to the bolts which typically secure the gasket to the engine block. It is estimated that as much as 65% of the load is concentrated at the bolt-locations.
There are difficulties in sealing the combustion opening of an operating engine which arise from dynamic motion of the engine parts caused by operating conditions such as firing pressures and thermal gradients, for example, as well as parts design and material selection. To overcome these difficulties, it would be highly desirable to provide a stopper seal wherein the load is more evenly distributed and thus the sealing effectiveness is materially increased.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn accordance with the present invention, the gasket has an annular flange around the aperture to provide a stopper seal. The flange has spaced areas of varying thickness. Preferably the flange is a folded-over portion of the gasket plate and the areas of reduced thickness are adjacent to the bolt-receiving holes. By thus reducing the thickness of the flange adjacent to the bolt-holes where loading tends to be concentrated, it is possible to spread the loading so that it is more evenly distributed.
In accordance with a preferred method of the invention, an opening is formed in a gasket plate radially inwardly of an annular array of bolt-holes. The opening is non-circular and has edges adjacent to the bolt-holes which are spaced radially outwardly of a center point of the opening a greater distance than the intervening edges. An annular portion of the plate surrounding the opening is folded back about a circular fold line to form a flange which is placed in surface-to-surface contact with an underlying portion of the plate adjacent to the fold line such that the edges of the flange face radially outwardly. The flange is then compressed. Compression of the flange will result in areas of the flange adjacent to the bolt-holes, being compressed a greater amount, and hence be of lesser thickness, than the other areas of the flange more remote from the bolt-holes. This is due to the fact that the areas of the flange adjacent to the bolt-holes are of lesser radial extent and therefore have less resistance to forces of compression. The flange thus formed serves as a stopper seal for the gasket.
One object of this invention is to provide a gasket and gasket-making method having the foregoing features and capabilities.
Other objects, features, and advantages will become apparent as the following description proceeds, especially when considered with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now more particularly to the drawings,
Referring to
An array of bolt-holes 32 surrounding the opening 24 may be formed in the plate 22 either before or after the opening 24 is punched. It is noted that the relatively large diameter edge portions 28 of the opening 24 are located adjacent to the respective bolt-holes 32.
The next step in the formation of the gasket is a forming operation shown in
Thereafter the flange 36 is folded back in a closing operation. As seen in
Finally, the flange 36 and the underlying annular portion of the plate 22 are compressed between the platens 50 and 52 which close perpendicularly on the plate 22 as shown in
The portions of the flange along the edge portions 28 adjacent to the bolt-holes is thinner than the portions along the edge portions 30 because the portions along the edge portions 28 have a lesser radial extent and hence offer less resistance to compression.
By forming the annular flange to a lesser thickness in the areas of the bolt-holes 32, it has been found that the distribution of loading forces on the flange when the gasket is bolted to the cylinder block is more evenly distributed than would be the case if the flange were of uniform thickness throughout its annular extent. The sealing effectiveness of the flange as a stopper seal is thus materially increased.
Claims
1. A gasket comprising
- a metal gasket plate,
- an aperture through said plate, and
- an annular flange formed as one piece of the same material as said metal gasket plate and in folded over surface-to-surface contact with an annular portion of said plate surrounding the aperture,
- said annular flange providing a stopper seal around the aperture,
- said annular flange having arcuately spaced areas of varying thickness and varying radial extent relative to said aperture, with relatively thicker areas of said annular flange having a relatively greater radial extent than that of relatively thinner areas of said annular flange.
2. The gasket of claim 1, wherein said plate has bolt-receiving holes spaced radially outwardly from said flange in arcuately spaced relation to one another, and the areas of said flange adjacent to said bolt-receiving holes are of said lesser thickness and said lesser radial extent that that of the areas of said flange more distant from said bolt-receiving holes.
3. The gasket of claim 2, wherein the annular portion of the gasket is of uniform thickness.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Oct 25, 2001
Date of Patent: Mar 28, 2006
Patent Publication Number: 20030080514
Assignee: Federal-Mogul World Wide, Inc. (Southfield, MI)
Inventors: Gregory Barclay (Mt. Prospect, IL), Tom Molitor (Arlington Heights, IL), Daniel Jele (Hoffman Estates, IL)
Primary Examiner: Vishal Patel
Attorney: Dickinson Wright PLLC
Application Number: 10/004,071
International Classification: F02F 11/00 (20060101);